World's Worst Rulers: Scratch One Now?

We put the question to you on
Facebook and Twitter: Who are the world's worst dictators (still in power)?

No surprise, Moammar Qaddafi was one of the hot buttons. But now the Libyan ruler seems to be on his last legs. His downfall would open up a spot in the "bottom 10" of this rogue's gallery. (Click on the photo to see all 10.)

Your most frequent selections tracked the news, to a great extent: Qaddafi and Bashar al-Assad of Syria were multiple picks. North Korea's Kim Jong-Il, another "favorite," is usually beckoning for attention with his nuclear adventurism, although of late he's been on furtive diplomatic swings. Maybe mass hunger in the totalitarian state threatens to touch the levers of his dynastic power.

Yet, your most common choice is rarely front and center for a global audience: Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. The 87-year-old despot has driven his southern African nation, prosperous for some at the time of its independence from Britain in 1980, to near-universal ruin. With thuggish violence and the customary spoils system for his family and military cronies, the superannuated revolutionary toyed with, and stifled, an earlier democratic spring.

The African continent was the most frequent source of your nominations. Many ignored the present-tense criterion and recalled an old tyrant, Idi Amin of Uganda. (And yes, there were several mentions of George W. Bush.) But interestingly, as attention has wandered elsewhere, Sudan's Omar al-Bashir got barely a mention. The same was true of Eastern Europe's last remaining Soviet holdover, Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus. And, perhaps most surprising, hardly a nod was made toward Beijing.

In all, 30 nations drew notice. The planet remains beset with enough dictators to darken the days of millions under their thumb. In a just world, current upheavals would reflect some of that misery back upon them.

UPDATE: The Wall Street Journal reported Sept. 2 on China's massive aid to Mugabe's Zimbabwe. It is uncanny to note the number of connections between Beijing and the thugs on this list.